Time Off.

I took the last three days off from the daily gratitude blogging–mostly because I wasn’t in school, and I gave myself permission to not work for two whole days.

The result? Yesterday I accomplished so much, and right now, I have five remaining essays and then I’m completely caught up (until the research papers hit me on Monday). So I’m grateful for time off.

Teaching is so demanding, and every day articles come through my RSS feed, offering a variety of opinions on what I should be doing in my classroom. Very rarely do these articles suggest that teachers sohuld take time for themselves. The majority of these articles just remind me that I’m not doing nearly enough, sharing expectations that would require a 36 hour day.

I’ll continue to blog here with more frequency than I have been, mostly because I have some exciting changes coming to my classroom next semester, and I know I’ll need a place to reflect and share.

Thanksgiving break is over now, and when I return to school on Monday, my room will be under construction and I won’t be back in it until Dec. 10, so I am relying on the kindness of strangers (not really…just teachers in other departments) to host me and my students for the next two weeks.

Plus, the end of the semester is always stressful, as students realize the consequences of their choices and long for time machines to undo some of the damage from earlier in the semester. It would be very easy for me to give into the crankiness that I’m sure will ensue.

But in spite of any upcoming difficulties, I hope the tens of readers who peeked here from time to time realize that I love my job. I really do enjoy my students, I adore the content I’m asked to teach, and I love my colleagues. Sometimes when people ask how I’m doing, I sigh and say, “Oh, you know, living the dream…”